The Winter Fists - An OC Story
by Hawk725
Summary: Egilhard Dubh an "S" rank mage is finally returning home to his guild. Little does he and his guild the Winter Fists know trouble is brewing in Fiore. They find themselves in the middle of it and fight to defend Fiore and the whole world from this new threat.


Fairy Tail – The Winter Fists

An OC Story

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters in any way, shape, or form.

Additional Disclaimer: The town of Wintergreen is the intellectual property of MyDearWatson and used with their permission.

Enjoy!

Egilhard Dubh is a mage like any other. The constant stress of missions, guilds, guildmates, and family can wear on a person. Eighteen years ago, he had to throw away the life of a mage to take care of his newborn son after his wife passed in childbirth.

His son Egil now lived in the small home that Egilhard had built for himself many years ago in Zinnia Village. It was a small quaint town, but it was where he was born too. Egilhard did not feel guilty that he was now leaving his son alone. He had a home, a business to run, and all the skills necessary to build himself his own life. Egilhard admittedly was disappointed that his son was never able to manifest his own magic especially considering that he and his wife both had magic.

Now that his son Egil was grown and properly taught how to run his own smithy Egilhard was returning to the life of a mage. Before he had originally left the guild, he had made quite the name for himself. His magic was not the strongest, but it was how he used it and how he drove himself constantly to greater and greater heights. Egilhard controlled a form of teleportation magic in which he could teleport across the battlefield and move around his opponents with ease. At around age twenty, he invented his own Blade Augmentation Magic. Using this he could augment and imbue his weapons with powerful elemental abilities. His movement across the battlefield was fluid and never had any missteps. Eventually, he earned himself an "S" rank at age twenty-four. He married later that year and then six years later that unbelievable life-altering day happened. His wife of six years was now gone and he was left alone to care for the child. He had no idea what he was doing and his family had already passed on, so he did not have the support most families had. Egilhard handled it better than most would have expected, but it was a lot of lost time, sleep, and energy. Egilhard only hoped he was still up to snuff when he got back into action with the guild.

The guild he was a member too was in the town of Wintergreen. It was housed in the foothills of a mountain with several layers making up its different districts. It was cold, yes, but it was home. The harsh climates that he traveled to on missions were always easy to bear due to the guilds' constant endurance training that they put themselves through higher up in the mountains. They had to avoid getting too close to the top, as they did not want to get to close to Thunder Stone's guildhall. Occasionally the guild would even go to different climates and train intensively in those as well. It was meant to be more than just endurance training it was also a great bonding experience for the guild.

The guild was originally founded by Edmund Winters, but Egilhard had received news a few years prior that he had passed on from an existing heart condition. Egilhard had gone to the funeral with his son. He remembered Dillon, Edmund's young granddaughter crying. Edmund was the last family she had as her parents had died a few years earlier in a terrible accident. She was the same age as Egil at the time, fourteen. It was heartbreaking, but the guild was in good hands. Willem Waller was declared the next guild master. Now Willem was a little odd. He was a very religious man as he was and still is a strong supporter of the Zentopia Church. Willem had a thick head of dark brown hair with a thick beard connected by his sideburns. His green eyes would always smile at you even when his mouth wasn't. He was tall and lanky standing at about six-foot-four-inches tall. You wouldn't think that the man could harm a fly with how skinny he was and how kind he acted. That was far from the truth, however. Egilhard knew him to have a rare form of Life Magic and was every bit worthy of the title of Guild Master as any other Guild Master in the land of Fiore. Due to the guild's adamant stance on staying small and shying away from fame, it was likely that Willem would never be considered for a position in the Ten Magic Saints, but he was most certainly on par with a few of them.

Egilhard now walked through the now mostly quiet streets of Wintergreen as it was now getting late. His hazel eyes bouncing back in forth taking in the view of streets he remembered well. Egilhard, now at age 48, was starting to show signs of aging his short light brown hair was now graying on the sides and his goatee had plenty of grey specks showing. Despite all the external signs he was still as strong as an ox and you could tell. He was well built and his broad shoulders accented his muscular frame. He wasn't that tall standing at only five-foot-six-inches tall, but most people could tell that they would not want to mess with him. He carried a longsword strapped to his side in a black scabbard. The scabbard had his name sewn on it in gold lettering. The sword he had made himself, but the scabbard was a gift from his wife, Cecilia. She had given it to him a little while after they had started dating. Cecilia was also a member of the same guild at the time. Those were fond memories, but thinking back on it brought tears to Egilhard's eyes.

Egilhard quickly decided to dismiss the thoughts of his wife and focus back on the task at hand. He continued to follow the dimly lit streets for a few more minutes and then moved into an alley. At the end of the alley was a door and above the door was a sign, and it said, "Winter Fists".

Egilhard Dubh approached the door to the guild. He stopped and stared at the door for a minute before shaking off his hesitation and grasping the door handle. He opened the door and stepped inside. The smell of beer and the usual tavern smell invaded Egilhard's nostrils the moment he stepped inside. The lights were off and he had a feeling as to what would come next.

"SURPRISE!"

It wasn't much of a surprise to Egilhard. He had a feeling they would pull something like this. The lights turned on and Egilhard could see his fellow guildmates smiling back at him. Even Gillian was smiling, which was a surprise. Normally she hated this kind of thing.

The middle-aged woman was as beautiful as ever. Her blonde hair was tied up in her usual bun. It looked like she had gotten new glasses since that last time that they had seen each other. Her bright blue calculating eyes were staring at him. Gillian Ward was always an amazing display of pure beauty in female form. She was fit and curvy in all of the right places. However, it was well known to everyone in the guild and everyone that met her that she did not have any interest in any form of relationships other than professional business relations. She was in fact the perfect example of a career woman who didn't need any companion. Gillian maintained a calm demeanor in all things, was the guild's accountant, and the only other "S" rank mage in the guild other than himself.

Willem was there, of course, smiling with those bright green eyes of his as well as with his mouth. Willem was a year older than he and the only question in Egilhard's mind upon seeing him was when Willem would sit him down for his first Zentopia Church devotional.

Howard Lee was there as well. The cowardly old man had gone bald since he last saw him at Edmund's funeral. His big white beard, however, was as magnificent as always and he still wore those ugly goggles over his eyes. The short nervous man was the only original member of the guild left, since Edmund's passing. It was a miracle he hadn't had a heart attack himself as a pin dropping in a quiet room could scare him. That was probably why he used magic the way that he did.

The only other guild member there was a man by the name of Rasmus Verran. The dark-skinned man was big and not just tall but built like a brick house. Standing at nearly six-foot-seven-inches tall and nearly all muscle. His hair was tied into long dreadlocks, which was much different than the short cornrows Egilhard remembered him sporting a few years back. Rasmus had just joined the guild right before Egilhard had left to care for his son. Rasmus had a form of Take-Over magic if he remembered correctly.

"Welcome back, brother!" called the deep booming voice of Rasmus.

Egilhard smiled and dropped his backpack onto the ground next to the door before embracing the large man in a hug. "It is good to be back my friend."

"Is this the whole group then?" asked Egilhard as he looked around the rest of the small tavern. The room had four small round tables all with four chairs around them to the right of the entrance. Straight in front of the door was the bar and it had four bar stools at it with the door to the kitchen behind it and to the left. The ornate wine rack that sat directly behind the bar was mostly empty and the oversized barrel of Wintergreen Ale was still to the bar's right. Passed the barrel was an entryway to a set of stairs, which led to the guild's basement. The basement was used as a training center and for storage. To the left and front of the bar was another entryway to the stairs going to the second floor. The guildhall was four stories high. The main floor only housed the tavern, the second and third floor held the guild's bedrooms, and the final floor held a meeting room and the guild master's room.

"This is all that is here at the moment," came Willem's soft kind voice.

"Team Element is uh out on uh tra-tra-training in in a desert," the nervous voice of Howard was as scared as always.

"Team Element?" asked Egilhard confused.

"Team Element is an affectionate term that Rasmus came up with for them. Our other five members all employ the powers of an element in nature. You would know Dillon Winters and Jarvis Mackey obviously," interrupted Gillian. She didn't want to waste time on waiting for Howard's response. You could also hear the disdain in her voice when mentioning Jarvis' name.

Egilhard remembered Jarvis. He was a character. He didn't have a serious bone in his body and was never on time for anything. He was an incredibly talented wind mage, but he could never take anything seriously and had remained a "B" rank mage despite having at the least "A" rank potential.

"Dillon joined the guild then? That's good."

Willem stepped forward and clasped Egilhard's shoulder. "We are the only family she has now." Willem's mouth frowned through his thick beard, but his kind eyes still smiled back at Egilhard. "Come now. I will show you to your room, so that you may put your things away and get settled back in."

Egilhard grabbed back up his bag and followed Willem up the stairs. "Unfortunately, yours and Cecilia's old room on the second floor is now occupied by Dillon. I did tell Raquel to move her stuff into Holly's room before they left. You will meet them later."

The second and third-floor hallways each had four rooms on them. This meant that there were only nine total bedrooms in the whole guild and occasionally they had to share a room with someone. Before Egilhard had gotten married he shared a room with Howard. Howard would wake him up every other night crying in his sleep. No not crying, but wailing. It was always at a random point of the night and never landing on the same hour and minute as a previous night.

As they walked past the doors Egilhard read the names next to each door. The two rooms on the left belonged to Dillon and Holly which would now include Raquel. The two rooms on the right belonged to Gillian and Jarvis.

The third floor was identical to the second. The two rooms on the left belonged to Rasmus and Howard. The first room on the right belonged to Gerald, whom he assumed he would meet later. The final room on the right had the name Rally next to it.

"Raquel forget to grab her nameplate from the door. Oh well. I'll take that out of there for you," Willem said as he gingerly removed the nameplate from the slot. "Well, this is it. It is good to have you back my friend."

"It is good to be back," replied Egilhard.

"I'll leave you to it then. Here is your key."

Willem handed Egilhard the key to his room before waving and turning to head up the next flight of stairs. Egilhard looked at the key before putting it into the lock. He unlocked the door and opened it.

"I'm finally home…"

Egilhard stepped into his new room and flipped the switch to the light.

"What in the blazes is this!?" Egilhard exclaimed.

There was what looked to be a puddle of oil right in the middle of the floor and several broken metal gadgets and pipes sitting in one corner. What remained of the bed was in the corner opposite of the scrap heap. The mattress to the bed was leaning on the wall next to the frame and box spring. The box spring itself was ripped apart and several springs were sticking out in random directions. It looks as if Raquel or "Rally" as the door tag had indicated had removed all of her personal items, but didn't bother to clean up the junk from whatever it was they were working on. They just shoved it all into a corner and left the oil spill in the middle of the floor.

Egilhard heard steps coming down the hall and Gillian burst into the room.

"I heard you scream! Is anything…" Gillian cut her words short as she looked in at the room in all its destroyed splendor. "Rally! Not again!"

"Not again? She destroys her room often?" Egilhard asked confused.

"It's not that. Destroying her room and dismantling random devices is common, but that is the second box spring that will need replacing in as many weeks!"

Egilhard looked to Gillian incredulously. "Okay…" was all he could manage to say in response.

"I hate to do this to you, but you can sleep in Gerald's room until they get back and then Rally will need to clean all of this up."

Egilhard nodded in reply and made his way out of the room. "It's quite alright, Gillian."

"No, I must apologize. This should not have happened. We should have checked and verified that the room was spotless before we sent them off," Gillian said disheartened as she pulled a set of keys out.

Gillian walked to the room adjacent to the disheveled room and unlocked it. "Here we are," she said as she flipped on the light.

Egilhard walked into the neatly kept room. There was a very ornate bookshelf along one wall and a matching desk next to it. Along the far wall was an oversized bed and along the other side, wall was an equally ornate wardrobe opposite of the bookshelf.

"Gerald is from a rich family and has expensive tastes, which is odd considering the way he acts at times. He is highly competitive and doesn't mind getting dirty. He can have that pretentious rich kid attitude every once in a while, though," Gillian explained. "You would have seen him at the funeral four years ago, so you might recognize him when you finally meet him. I'll let you get settled now. Let me know if you need anything."

Gillian did a slight bow and adjusted her glasses.

"Thanks, Gillian."

She nodded in reply and left the room closing the door behind her.

Egilhard set his bag down at the foot of the bed and walked over to the bookshelf. There were plenty of interesting titles on the shelf. There was a wide range of fiction, non-fiction, and a few instructional how-to books. Egilhard settled on grabbing a book entitled "_Wintergreen and their Guilds_." The book covered the few guilds founded in Wintergreen, including Winter Fists and Thunder Stone. It was mostly about mages that were born in Wintergreen, however. It was clearly titled incorrectly and that irked Egilhard slightly. He read through it for about half an hour before putting it back into its place on the shelf.

Egilhard walked back to his bag and pulled out a small journal and ink pen. He sat down at the desk and flipped open the journal to the first blank page and numbered the page in the corner then proceeded to write.

December 10, X764

Today, I have finally joined back up with the Winter Fists. It is definitely a bittersweet moment. Our son Egil, has all the tools he needs to succeed in life. I know he will do well, but I will miss him.

I find myself thinking back to when I first joined the Winter Fists all those years ago. There were only five other members at that time. I found it strange as a young man that they stayed so small despite the clear talent and ability that the guild had. I had quickly grown to admire Edmund Winter even with some of his odd beliefs. In fact, it was probably his odd beliefs that gained my loyalty and admiration. He always had this way with words, coming up with essentially proverbs left and right. I continue to use my favorite saying of his as my life motto and I know that I have managed to instill it in our son as well. Yes, there is always something for us to do. We are not short on responsibilities. No life is exempt from that.

I love you and I miss you, Cecilia.

Your husband,

Egilhard Dubh

A/N: Thank you, everyone, for reading! I plan for this to be a short series following the stories of Egilhard Dubh and the adventures his guild gets into. This story starts in the year (X764) but does mention several events further back. You can do the math in the story to figure out what years if you really want to haha.

The town of Wintergreen is home to Thunder Stone as well as some of you probably know which is a creation from the minds of MyDearWatson and beta-reader Dreadburner94. Please check their work out as well if you haven't already. I have most of the story's plot written out already and I know where I want to end. I know for this chapter I have edited it multiple times before feeling it was perfect.

So special thanks to both MyDearWatson and Dreadburner94 again as I had to get their approval to write/post this.

Thanks again and I'll see you in the next chapter!


End file.
